Ladies and Gentlemen Remove Your Blinders

He pushed his chair away from the table to stretch his legs.  The chair rolled back with a slight squeak but no one seemed to notice.  They all appeared to be lost in their own thoughts.
Some stared blankly out the window while others played with the colorful pipe cleaners and Play-Doh that occupied the center of each table.
They were entering hour number 5 of the training.  The man had built a small menagerie of pipe cleaner animals but only while on break.  He paid close attention whenever possible but being human his mind did stray a little bit on the recaps. 
As the three people at the head of the table presented their information he couldn't help but recollect his childhood.  This session seemed to mimic a good portion of his adolescence.

An assorted mix of people congregated around the table.  Most were there to adopt a family member.  A grandson whose mother had been jailed, another grandson whose mother and father had completely disappeared, a nephew here and a niece there.  They were only there because the state mandated that they take these classes before continuing on with their adoption.  These children had been living with them already, they were family and in most cases were already functioning as a close knit family.
They snickered and made jokes, yawned more than necessary and were quite callous as a participatory group.  The man was saddened slightly at the loss of human emotion and respect in the room.

Half the group left after the third session.  They made it painfully aware that the state said they only had to take the first three and they weren't staying for anymore than they had to.  He was glad they  left.  It was distracting.

As the sessions moved toward their finale he became increasingly unsure of himself.  His blinders had been removed and his peripheral vision had him doubting his assuredness.
He needed time to think.

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So as you can tell from above we just finished or first round of training for the foster care program.
We needed to take sessions 1-4 and also 6 to be able to apply for our license.  We still have a bit of paperwork to fill out but were getting closer.  I must admit I wasn't really thinking the whole thing through.  I was only looking at it through happy glasses.  Not seeing or understanding the problems and issues that come along with this program. 
Not just the children that may come to live with us but the parents of those children as well.
Children need help, a loving home, security.  They also still love the parents that have harmed them or put them in harms way.  They don't give you perfectly normal children.

How would you feel if you were taken from your parents?  How would you feel if your child was taken from you?
How great would it be to help those two back to a loving and safe environment that is fit for both parent and child.
Obviously this isn't going to happen with every child but there has to be hope for them.  Without hope what else is there?
There is a long road in front of us.  I do not know where it may lead but I have hope that it is headed in the right direction.
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We will be leaving shortly, headed north on a family ski trip.  Should be quite the adventure.  The kids have never been before and the weather is very cold, snowy and windy.
This will be one of those trips that should make some great memories.
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Blogger seems to have come out of its timeout and appears to functioning normal again.
I will have pics and more to come of everything that has been going on lately.
Cheers!

 Here are a few pics of some things I have been doing!  Mostly wood cutting!
That is my chainsaw on the ground in front of the giant tree I cut up

An ash tree that was killed by the emerald ash borer beetle

My woodpile that I still haven't got all the way split and stacked

More of the giant tree

My Beech stump coffee table finally made it into the house

 

Odd Man Out

Consistency was never his strong point he thought to himself as he eyed the other tables in the room.  Women sipping champagne and leaving the bright blush of lipstick on the fluted glasses while men twirled expensive scotch in a whirlwind of ice and the muted, amber tones of aged liquor.

These people were dedicated.  They came here often.  Often enough that the waiters knew them on a first name basis and although they could not recall the name of the server it still made them feel warmly popular.  He noted this while he sipped warm beer from a glass coated in his own oily fingerprints.  He did not belong here yet he was pulled here by some strange longing.  Not to fit in but to.... the right words always seemed to escape him.  There was no thesaurus here and so he sipped his warm beer, lost in his struggles to identify the word which so eluded him.

Decorate?  Was that it?  He longed to decorate the world with.......no that was not it.

He haled the waiter who politely acknowledged him as sir, not his first name as he had so hoped for.  He was experienced enough to know the difference between hope and anticipation.  He downed the last of his warm beer in one swallow and a grimace and awaited the return of the server.

The couples began to dance and he sat back with a sigh as the womens' long, flowing dresses twirled about the mens' shiny, patent leather shoes.  The orchestra was pleasant but the sound was not intriguing to him.  Only elevator music, cluttering up the forefront of his mind.  He longed for the warmth of his fire, silence, except for the rattle of the keys and the snapping of the flames.  A hot cup of coffee and his slippers.

This was not his world.   Appearances were gradually spacing themselves further and further apart.
He sometimes felt as if he was losing his grasp on the very thing which he had longed to hold for so long now.  Slip, slip, sliding away.

Participate? Give? Experience?  The words continued to roll through his mind and he wished the waiter would return quickly before he lost all nerve and quietly exited the hall, unknown and unrecognized, exactly the way he had come in.

Recognized?  Was that what he was trying to accomplish?  Was that why he was here?  To be recognized?  He thought maybe that word was a hinge that would allow him to open the chest and if he shuffled through all the items in there would he find what he was looking for? 
Down deep in the bottom, amidst the dust and debris of hundreds of centuries?
The one thing that had eluded so many like him, scrawled on a yellowed and tattered piece of paper.

The waiter returned with his beer and he pushed it away with a nod and slunk from the building.

The only evidence that the man was ever there was the beer glass with his fingerprints and the footprints under the table where his shoes had left a trace of mud from the wet dirt in his driveway.
Soon that was cleared away.

 

baby steps to the computer

I'm still peeved but I think it may be my browser as now another favorite site of mine is unpictureable
New computer once Uncle Sam gives back my money he borrowed all year intrest free!

I miss blogger already!

Ok maybe I'm not done quite yet.  Wordpress is not........well......Me.
I'll figure it out eventually.

 

That is a picture of a bullet I found in the middle of one of my logs I cut!

switching to wordpress

Well I can't stand it anymore.  Blogger has been fun for quite a few years but it's time to switch to something functional.  (for now)
I may be back, may not.  Maybe my new computer will gel with blogger better.
For now you can find me at:
The new place

No pics...only words!

It's been awhile.  How have you been?
I am having issues with blogger.  Not exactly the biggest of issues, like having a 16 yr old step daughter come home and not being able to find her soccer shirt that she swears she left at your house and not her Dad's house and burst into tears and slams doors type of issues. 
Nothing is quite that big but just little quirks that bug me. 

I like to post pictures with my blog.  Unless I'm just making crap up which I do time to time but regardless.  The image posting feature is not allowing me to upload pics from my computer and so being the calm, good natured peson I am, I threw a fit and stormed out of the room only to return minutes later and see if somehow it gloriously rectified itself.  It didn't. 
This time I swore at it.
That didn't help either but it got the dogs attention, who lay cuddled together at my feet because to a dog there is no safer and happier place in the world.
I get that half cocked head look as if to say ,"chill out man if it's not working either pee on it or chew it up."

 I just haven't felt like writing.  Tired, irritated, amongst other things.  Also this keyboard is dying.  I have to go back and fix almost every word because the keys are not functioning properly.  It skips letters.  I would buy a new one but once we have our taxes back we have to buy a new system.  Right now we are using the daughters laptop and we should probably give it back!
Ok enough excuses. 

Christmas was good.  New Years as well (I was in bed at 10pm).  I began my seasonal wood cutting regimen.  Sort of.  It started out good but  I was having some issues with the saw I rebuilt last winter.
This is a big saw, a highly prized saw in the chainsaw community.  Yes we have a community!LOL
I had also rebuilt my other saw last winter and it just seemed like every time I needed to use them I had to tinker with them, re-tune them and so I decided I was going to sell them both and buy a brand new one.  I would sell one for $300 and the other for $500.  If I could clear $750 then I would have enough to buy the new saw I so desperatley needed.  So the day I decided to sell them the big one started acting up.  I figured it needed a carbuerator rebuild because that was the only thing I did not do when I put a brand new engine into it last year.  So I ordered one and when it came in I put the kit in and the saw ran great again.  That night I put an ad on Craig's List and that night a fellow called me from about 2 hours away and wanted to come look at the small one.

He showed up the next day and liked the saw, I let him cut some wood and he bought it.  $300.  I tried to get him to buy the big saw too but he refused.  I asked him to at least try it (thinking once he did he would have to have it) and he said ok.  It wouldn't start.  I was a bit embarrased.  He took his saw and went on his merry way.  I was left holding a saw that was up for sale that wouldn't start.
I pulled the ad from CL and began work on the saw.  I spent most of the day trying to figure out what was wrong.  I could get it to start but not stay running.  I was now without a working saw.  I had planned on using one or the other until they both sold and now I was up the creek so they say.

I said the heck with it and put it on ebay for parts only, not running and started bidding at $200 or buy it now for $350.  I sold it that same day to a guy in Ohio.  He sent me the money via paypal invoice and I shipped the saw that day.  I tranasfered the money to my checking account and monday when he got the saw he emailed me and said the saw wasn't running, etc, etc.
Wanted his money back.  I told him the saw was listed for parts , not running and I don't know what the heck he thought he was going to get and basically told him I wasn't refunding his money.  He knew it wasn't running when he bought it.  It said that in the listing and I told him over the phone exactly what it was doing. 
So he filed a dispute with paypal which threw my paypal account into a negative balance.
Well it turns out that going around ebay (I pulled my auction at his request and sent him an invoice) and just using paypal is frowned upon.  He gave up his ebay protection but still qualifies for paypal protection.  He filed the claim as item not as described.  From what I can tell paypal protection only covers him if it didn't ship or if I sent him a box of bricks.  I sent paypal, copies of our emails, messages, the original listing which stated for parts/not working, no returns, no exchanges.  I also told them he asked me to pull the ad and he is a ebay seller of 15 years and he should know the rules.  (I didn't)  I hope they shut down both our accounts and he has to keep the saw.

 Regardless I went out and bought my new saw anyways.  Hopefully they don't award him the victory in "Paypal Court" and suck the money back out of my checking account.  If they do I already have another person lined up to buy it but the point is the guy is bascially calling me a cheat and a liar.  That bothers me...alot!

So I have been cutting wood, dreaming of my springtime garden and not much else.  The winter doldrums are setting in I believe.
In Michigan, in the dead of the winter when all else fails to keep you happy, there is beer!
Just kidding I'm sort of busy, don't have time to sit around and get schnackered all the time, although it sounds like fun!
We have a ski trip coming up with the family at the end of the month.  Headed north to Caberfae for two days skiing an a night in the resort hotel.  Should be fun.  The kids have never been before and of course they want to snowboard!
We also have our foster care training coming up.  Within a few months we should have our license and be able to foster some children.

I have a new deal cutting wood with a friend so that will keep me busy as well.  I have put the snowblower back in the shed because it just doesn't snow anymore! 

Have you seen the new how on TV called "Farm Kings"?  Oh man I love that show.  A family of a mom, nine boys and a sister all run the family farm and they grow the nicest looking veggies, have a great family bond and work their butts off.  That is my kind of show!  Check it out.

Other than that, not much going on.  I can't wait to get the garden started this year.  I have big plans.
I'm looking forward to sitting on my new patio and enjoying the summer.  I didn't get a whole lot of time to enjoy it last year.  I plan on finishing the planting beds around the house, putting a new railing on the back deck along with a pergola type top complete with a retractable shade cloth.
Finish cleaning out the wood line and start my shade garden/frog pond area.

I would love to put a brick paver sidewalk going around the garage but not sure I can swing that one past the budget nazi.  She can be tough to persuade but I have my ways!

I would love to show you some pics but......

Until next time!

Ugh my stupid picture thing isn't working!